Into Every Life...

A little rain much fall. And this Spring - again - has been no exception. Every year we follow how much rain listeners receive with our AgLand FS Rain Gauge report. This morning when I opened my email I have rainfall totals from all over Central Illinois and I honestly just let out a huge sigh. We're getting reports from 3/4 of an inch to over two inches over the weekend. Our ground is already so saturated - I wonder if it is ever going to end.

Then I look at the forecast... Possible rain showers today and tonight and tomorrow... BLECH! Friday on my way home I saw equipment moving... I got a little hopeful. Today - I have a feeling of blech. May 1st.. My goal to do our first planting tour stop is by May 1st. With the weather the way it is - I won't hold my breath...

Later this week looks nice though - mid 60's on Wednesday, mid 70's on Thursday and on Friday - 80.. 80? Seriously!? Honestly - I'd be happy with 75 and sunny every day... Is that too much to ask?

I suppose this is enough for now - I should get into the office and get real work done.

Are You Helping To Grow Your Soup?

Those that know me.. know I get excited about some of the silliest things. When I say silly - I don't mean childish silly - I just mean things that most people wouldn't normally get excited about. For example - I love "Double Cross" Mornings at the radio station. I love simplistic beautiful architecture. Like Martha Stewart, I too, love "Good Things" (that's the only thing I want to compare to Martha Stewart). I even like the Fine Young Cannibals song "Good Thing". So when I get excited about something, especially... Good Things I want to share it over and over and over again.

I'm sure you're wondering where this is going.... Today, on The Noon Show - I had John Faulkner who is the Director of Brand Communications with Campbell's Soup Company back to talk about their Help Grow Your Soup Campaign that they started last Fall. Today he talked about how successful the campaign was. Today... we also talked about their new campaign. It's still called Help Grow Your Soup but this time... Campbell's is teaming up with the National FFA Organization and Urban Farming to plant gardens in six urban areas across the United States. In addition - Campbell's is partnering with Partners in Active Learning Support (PALS), a mentoring program of the National FFA Organization, to help build agricultural learning greenhouses in schools.

So - yes.. I get excited for interesting things. I really, really get excited over companies wanting to educate consumers about where their products originate.

Ones last thing... If you go to http://helpgrowyoursoup.com/ and click on the grow button you can donate seeds to the greenhouse... through Campbell's. If you purchase a can of Campbell's Soup and enter the codes... You can get your own packet of Campbell's Seed to grow for yourself. These aren't any seeds... These are seeds that Campbell's uses to grow tomatoes for their soup... Pretty Cool, eh?

One last thing (I promise)... Here's a video that John sent me that talks about the campaign even more.




Enjoy... and Help Grow Your Soup!!! It's a Good Thing, Marther.

Mission: Blog.

I keep telling myself (and you) that I'm going to sit down and blog. I have so much to say - I'm just not sure if my thoughts are organized enough to put everything in writing. What's more - I'm a little scatter brained this morning.... I'm not sure if it is from the snow... Or the creepy voice mail that was on the phone in my office when I came into work this morning.

So here's what's been going on recently... The last time I wrote - I was getting ready to leave for Germany. I wrote on the 18th of March - before Germany. My goal was to blog from there about the trip... But I didn't succeed... So now.. I'm playing "catch-up". Hopefully I'll be able to post every day... That way I can give you multiple stories and pictures from Germany!

I'm going to break this down day by day in separate posts. This way - this isn't such a long post!

Day One "I'm Leaving On A JetPlane":

The day I left for Germany was the last day of National Agriculture Week. So my mom and I headed for breakfast at the Knights of Columbus Hall off of Radnor Road in Peoria to support the Peoria County Farm Bureau's Farmer Share of the Dollar Breakfast. It was pretty tasty and a great way to start off my trip! My mom dropped me off at the airport in Peoria and I started my journey. I landed in Chicago with an eight hour layover - and I used every minute of it! I ran into some fellow broadcasters, and participants of the trip. We loaded up for our flight and were on our way to Germany.


I had the most entertaining and one of the most interesting people I have ever met next to me on my flight. It made for some interesting conversation, to say the least. We landed in Germany around 8AM local time (that's about 2AM back home). We headed to he most amazing hotel to a little R&R and to tour the sites in Dusseldorf. Here are some photos from Day 1.

















Those are some photos from the tour of Dusseldorf. After our tour some of us grabbed some dinner (lunch to normal people) in the hotel and relaxed before our evening. I really, really love those trees!!!

I love food - that should be no secret. However - we had the most amazing food while we were in Germany. Our first night kicked it off right... Our dinner consisted of soup, the man course, dessert and bier! We went back to the hotel to get some rest because our first day of sessions in Monheim are going to be a busy one. And that's coming up next....

Before I sign off this morning - here are some photos from our dinner that first night...

P.S. Mission: Accomplished.

Where Do I Start?

I really am not quite sure where to start this... There's been so much going on lately. The last time I wrote I was in Grapevine, TX for Commodities Classic... I had a great week but it was tiring - as trade shows and meetings of that caliber are. I got home on Saturday - went to the wildest birthday party I have ever witnessed - and then left at 5 o'clock the next morning for a week long trip to Washington, D.C. for my Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program. Now that trip was AMAZING. You can read more about that rip by clicking HERE

We arrived back in Chicago around 3 o'clock that day... When I turned my phone on - I had a message regarding an opportunity to travel to Germany with Bayer CropScience and extension personnel from around the United States... After the decision was made that I could go - the real challenges began.

*Side Note* When I was accepted to the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program last August I had a very silly (at the time) conversation with my mom... It went something like this:

MOM - "Meghan - you better get your passport now so you have it "just in case".

MEGHAN - "Nah, I have two years.. I'm not planning any big trips any time soon."

MOM - "But, Meghan.... You never know."

MEGHAN - "Okay. I'll think about it."

Guess what... I didn't get my passport. Whoops.

So last Thursday I had a meeting in the 'burbs. I figured... Ahh... I'll make an appointment at the Kluczynski Building... It'll take a few hours and I'll head to my meeting... I arrived at the Kluczynski Building at 10am... 5 hours later... Mission accomplished. I was told my passport would be processed on Friday and shipped no later than Monday - in my hands by Tuesday. I was urged to call the Travel Agency's 800 number to monitor the progress of my passport... I did... and I also have the FedEx Tracking number memorized because I have put it so many times over the last five days. So anyway.. back to my story... I call the passport number on Friday - wait on hold FOREVER - and they tell me it hasn't even been looked at yet and to call back later that day... So I did - still nothing.

Monday came and I was still in the same bind. They had at least started the process. A friend of mine (Tom B) suggested that I call my Congressman's office. So I start at the office in Washington, D.C. I spoke to two interns in Congressman Schock's office. Neither one of them could get my story correct let alone understand what I was referring to with problems obtaining my expedited passport. My favorite line "So, um, like you lost your passport while you were here in Washington last week.". *sigh* No... So - I called the Peoria office, District 18 headquarters... And they are my new favorite people in the world. Tiffany from Representative Schock's Peoria office is truly was a Godsend. She got to the bottom of the passport issue and it was processed on Monday and printed on Tuesday and should be here by 10:30 this morning. At least that's what the FedEx website said. Not only did she call once.. She called to follow up again and again. And everytime she followed up - she let me know what was going on with the passport. She definitely went above and beyond what she had to do and I most certainly appreiciate it.

I truly feel sorry for the people at the 800 number - I think I was calling three to four times a day. So Sorry! But the issue is resolved and the passport is in Bartonville waiting to be brought to me at the station. Woohoo!


This morning - on my way into work.. I stopped by the gas station to get a Diet Coke... I stop at the same place every morning... Same time.. Same routine. This morning I left and was headed to the McCluggage Bridge and in the middle of the road was a pack or herd or whatever you want to call it of seven or eight deer. I decided to go "dowling" or "deer-bowling". I took out three - in one swipe. Luckily - I'm fine... My car is fine. The deer kind of rolled up gave me a little wink and a smile and ran off. Apparently they think "no harm, no foul". I was a little pissed... But that's okay. I"m sure I'll survive.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to blog from Germany fairly easily. That way I can keep you abreast as to what's happening.

And hopefully - Things will relax a little bit today.. I am not sure if I can take much more of this!

~M

Genuity...

So you may wonder what exactly Genuity is - but Monsanto just gave us the details.

"Genuity is the family of traits that enables farmers to so what they do best, even better.". We're at Monsanto's new product announcement and they're trying to unite producers with the technologies they embrace. The three key terms are Unite, Simplify and Differential.

Dion McBay who is a member of the Monsanto family said when producers helped to make the choice of the branding - McBay said farmers identified "Genuity" they saw "genuine". McBay elaborated and said they're trying to keep things more simple.

You can expect to see "Genuity" in your product line up starting in 2010 Genuity SmartStax (pending regulatory approval).


We'll have more details as the week goes on... This is "their next step forward towards the future of technology." Here's a quick look at what the Genuity lable may look like going forward....

Bayer, Day 2.

I'm sure you're thinking you're pretty blessed this morning... Two blogs from me in two days.. Yeah - you got that right. Today is Day to of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum. Yesterday was a great day - we heard from Murray Wise (as we discussed yesterday), Aaron Hager and then a great Grower Panel which consisted of growers from all over - Kansas, Illinois, North Dakota, Iowa and Oklahoma. One thing that was consistent - no matter where growers are from... their concerns run solid throughout the nation.



That was the business at hand yesterday. Then there was the fun.... and OMG was it ever fun. Last year was awesome and I wasn't sure if they could top it.. This year was amazing. Great food, Great fellowship and an opportunity to socialize in a non professional setting. Now - I'm sure you're wondering how exactly that benefits those of us in the professional setting.. But I value it just as much as being able to attend these types of functions on the professional side. It allows all of us to be able to let our hair down.. To relax and get to know the people we work side by side with every day. People know I love my job - but I love learning and these are great ways to do that, too.



So let's talk about the Phil Vassar concert last night. It was amazing... Not over exaggerating either. He was a phenomenal piano player, amazing entertainer and he was down to earth, too. He sat on the edge of the stage, talked to all of us and I got to snuggle him during our time backstage. The picture below is of the three farm broadcasters lucky enough to end up backstage at the Phil Vassar concert....



I have to personally thank the folks at Rhea + Kaiser as well as Bayer for a phenomenal night. It hands down topped many of the events I've been too in recent years. Great speaker line-up, great entertainment and Day two has been just as interesting.


Our morning started off with Phil Needham - from Needham Ag Technologies, LLC. We saw photos of wheat fields that averaged yields of 200+bu/ acre. No.. SERIOUSLY. Pretty cool, eh? Needham highlighted the importance of Global Crop Management. Following Needham's session we broke out in the cereals and corn/soybean sessions. Dr. Bryan Young of Southern Illinois University talked about weed control and weed management (remember me telling you how much I've started to really enjoy learning about weeds and agronomy? oh yeah - I've become a dork.. I admit it). I love the fact that we're learning about the emerging technologies.. New Soybean traits, things that area already in the pipeline. We even got an insight of something really new.


Up next is Don Young of Ducks Unlimited... We're going to talk sustainability... We're trying to get him on the show today at Noon... So you'll have to tune in... It is definitely a project that we'll have to see if it's all it's "quacked" up to be. Sorry for the silly joke - but I couldn't help myself!




That's all for now...

After today - Commodities Classic starts in full gear and we'll let you know what exactly is going on in Grapevine, TX.

For the love of all that's...

Yeah... You know - I made a "resolution" to be more diligent in my blogging... I still am horrible. Sorry. That's just how it is.. You'll be lucky to get an update once a month. I have no clue how people blog more than once a week - let alone once a day. I salute them. Seriously. It takes some serious diligence and dedication to accomplish that. I'm sitting in the back of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum. Talk about interesting - and we're only halfway through today's session. Earlier today we heard from Dr. David Kohl who is a Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech. One of the thing he talked about was the past century of Super Cycles. Later today or tomorrow I'll get the audio uploaded so you can hear what he was talking about. He showed the correlation between the major wars and the effect on our economy.

The picture of the slide to the right illustrate the correlation he was talking about. I hope you're able to see its details.

We just finished hearing from Murray Wise with the Westchester Group. Wise touched on some of the crop land issues as well as to what growers in the US are doing correctly. In all the negativity going on in the ins and outs of our daily lives - it was a nice change of pace. Don't get me wrong - Wise didn't sugar coat anythings. Things are a mess... and we know this. But he gave a different view - one that almost resembles a glimpse of hope. Psst... I'll post that audio, too. :-)

We just started our next session with Aaron Hager. He's a weed scientist at the University of Illinois. Actually - one of my favorite people to talk about on one of the topics most interesting to me. He just started talking about the difference or similarities of Weed Control vs. Weed Management. Using Illinois as an example - Hager says Illinois corn farmers have relied on a combination of tactics to control weeds. From tillage, soil-applied, POST herbicides, etc.

Did you know weed interference begins to reduce corn yields long before it effects soybean yields? Yikes! We're learning lots of new things today. Hager says it depends on the crop, the weather conditions, the year and the weed.

Here's an interesting face.. of 877 people polled if glyphosate resistance weeds will change the way we manage our weeds... 91% of people said yes.

So yes - it's been very interesting and I'm excited about tomorrow, too. Another great lineup is in store -and I could quite possibly keep continue to be impressed.

I promise - I'll get the audio posted as soon as I can.

Until next time..